Calorie changes when bulking/cutting.

kazane1

How many calories does everyone recommend to add and to minus when clean cutting and bulking? I have been adding 250 while bulking until I hit a plateau and then I add a further 250 and I have found that works okay for me.. I’ve found you put weight on at a good manageable rate this way.
I’m yet to do a cut but I think I’m going to try the same first and see how it goes so that’s taking off 250 calories from maintenance on a cut too. I’m considering after trying the minus 250 calories this time of trying a cut of minus 500 calories next year sometime to understand what’s best when cutting.

What works best for all of you and why?

sardelsa

It really depends how fast/slow you want to gain/lose. 250 cals is about 0.5lb per week which is very reasonable in either direction... obviously as you lose/gain your maintenance will change so you have to adjust for that with time.

I prefer to go slow and steady with 0.5lb when gaining or losing. 1lb per week is ok too, especially if you weigh more and if you are coming out of a bulk. Some people like to start off with a higher deficit (bodyfat is higher, you get more calories, more motivation, etc) then slow it down when it gets down to the grind. You may have to try it out and see what works for you.

AnvilHead

https://bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/muscle-gain-math.html/

Riff1970

Your strategy is just what I try to do. 250 calories and if the results slow down, bump the calories up another 200 or so.

I would think there’s a limit on the cutting side though. I have a friend who’s 150 and cutting. He’s down to 1300 calories a day and not really as lean as he wants to be. I told him don’t cut calories anymore and bump up cardio by 5 or 10 minutes to see if he gets results. It could be his genetics and he just won’t look as lean as he wants to.

kazane1

Riff1970 wrote: »

Your strategy is just what I try to do. 250 calories and if the results slow down, bump the calories up another 200 or so.

I would think there’s a limit on the cutting side though. I have a friend who’s 150 and cutting. He’s down to 1300 calories a day and not really as lean as he wants to be. I told him don’t cut calories anymore and bump up cardio by 5 or 10 minutes to see if he gets results. It could be his genetics and he just won’t look as lean as he wants to.

Yeahh sounds like a good general rule of thumb really, and yeah I think your mate needs to just add in more cardio instead of cutting out too many calories because 1300 is really low in my opinion.

kazane1

AnvilHead wrote: »

https://bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/muscle-gain-math.html/

Interesting read for bulking, thanks!